Movies

Arts

Director Of 'Just Mercy' Depicts Characters 'In All Of Their Complexities'

4:29pm January 02, 2020

by Neda Ulaby

Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton previously had a job working with foster children at a group home. He believes that work — listening, understanding, communicating — helped prepare him for directing.

Why Some Men Have Hesitations About Going To See 'Little Women'

4:29pm January 02, 2020

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Monica Hesse of The Washington Post, about male audiences hesitating to view Little Women.

Moni Yakim teaches a movement class at Juilliard in May 2019.

Arts

Moni Yakim Knows How To Move You

6:17pm December 31, 2019

by Alexandra Starr

The movement coach has taught at Juilliard for 50 years. Stars of stage and screen credit him with helping them create physically demanding roles by manipulating their bodies.

Queue Listen Now

Phoebe Waller-Bridge breaking the fourth wall in Fleabag is among the great things of this year.

Books
Arts

50 Wonderful Things From 2019

5:43pm December 31, 2019

by Linda Holmes

From J.Lo to Keanu, baseball GIFs to Phoebe Waller-Bridge's masterpiece, here are 50 great cultural moments — from TV, movies, theater, books, podcasts and more — from the year that was.

North American Box Office Sales Come In About 4% Lower Than Last Year

5:36pm December 30, 2019

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Rosy Cordero of Entertainment Weekly about the 2019 box office numbers.

Queue Listen Now

The Best Movies Of 2019

4:28pm December 30, 2019

by Bob Mondello

Hollywood has had an identity crisis in 2019, but that hasn't stopped the flow of great filmmaking. Critic Bob Mondello offers his take on the ten (or maybe 20) best movies of the year.

Adam Sandler plays jeweler Howard Ratner in the film Uncut Gems. The score is as shiny and cosmic as Ratner's life is messy and frantic.

Music & Culture

Inside 'Uncut Gems': A Cosmic Score In A Frantic Film

5:17pm December 28, 2019

by Tim Grieving

Uncut Gems hurtles along with Howard Ratner's compulsion to gamble, bet his winnings instead of paying off debts and chase down the next high. A lot of the score is, counterintuitively, New Age.

Taika Waititi On His Favorite Film Of The Decade

5:11am December 27, 2019

Filmmaker Taika Waititi talks about his favorite movie of the decade, Get Out.

Benny (left) and Josh Safdie stand with Adam Sandler while filming Uncut Gems.

Arts

The Movies Of The Safdie Brothers, Makers Of 'Uncut Gems'

5:11am December 27, 2019

by Andrew Limbong

Independent filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie have been trying to make their thriller, starring Adam Sandler as a New York jeweler, for nearly a decade. Here's what they've made leading up to it.

Queue Listen Now

Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) defends wrongly condemned Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) in Destin Daniel Cretton's film.

Arts

'Just Mercy': An Earnest, Effective Legal Drama

5:00pm December 26, 2019

by Andrew Lapin

This adaptation of attorney Bryan Stevenson's book about a wrongly condemned black man dramatizes that case while offering an unflinching look at the death penalty.